Showing titles in Biographical Fiction

Lee Krasner was determined to be an artist. With single-minded passion she pursued her dream. By her twenties she was Hans Hofmann's best student, and a vanguard of America's first art movement, along with de Kooning, Kline and Pollock. But for most of the twentieth century, art was a man's world, and even her peers failed her. Another obstacle for Lee was her marriage to Jackson Pollock, whose star shone so brightly, it cast a shadow over everything around it, eventually self-destructing.

Exploring themes of ownership and abandonment, Eleanor Anstruther’s debut is a fictionalised account of the true story of Enid Campbell (1892-1964), granddaughter of the 8th Duke of Argyll, who sold her son to her sister for £500. Interweaving one significant day in 1964 with a decade during the interwar period, A Perfect Explanation gets to the heart of what it is to be bound by gender, heritage and tradition, to fight, to lose, to fight again. In a world of privilege, truth remains the same; there are no heroes and villains, only people misunderstood.

The heartrending story of a British boy's four-year ordeal in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War. Based on J. G. Ballard's own childhood, this is the extraordinary account of a boy's life in Japanese-occupied wartime Shanghai - a mesmerising, hypnotically compelling novel of war, of starvation and survival, of internment camps and death marches. It blends searing honesty with an almost hallucinatory vision of a world thrown utterly out of joint.

For nineteen-year-old Estelle Thompson, going to the cinema is more than a way to pass the time...it's a way out. In 1931 in Calcutta, Anglo-Indian girls like Estelle are considered half-breeds, shunned by both English and Indian society. Her only escape is through the silver screen, where she can forget the world around her. When Estelle catches the eye of a dashing American heir with connections to a major motion-picture studio, he also captures her heart. Soon, Estelle has a one-way ticket to London and a recommendation for a screen test.

1940, France. Varian Fry, a young American journalist, arrives in Marseille armed only with three thousand dollars and a list of writers, thinkers and artists he hopes to rescue - so long as the Nazis don't get to them first. With borders closing around him, Varian tries to track down those on his list. At home in New York, making a list seemed hard, but in the middle of humanity's darkest hour, Varian must do all he can to help. And as the Nazis begin to get word of Varian's secret operation, he must dig deep and find the courage to rescue as many innocents as he can.

Diana, Catherine, Meghan...glamorous Princess Margaret outdid them all. Springing into post-World War II society, and quite naughty and haughty, she lived in a whirlwind of fame and notoriety. Georgie Blalock captures the fascinating, fast-living princess and her “set” as seen through the eyes of one of her ladies-in-waiting.

Poland, 1891. Marie Curie (then Marya Sklodowska) was engaged to a budding mathematician, Kazimierz Zorawski. But when his mother insisted Marya was not good enough, he broke off the engagement. A heartbroken Marya left Poland for Paris to study chemistry and physics at the Sorbonne. Marie would go on to change the course of science forever and become the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. But what if Marie had made a different choice?

In the throes of crisis, Rome braces for change. Caesar, Rome’s greatest general and conqueror of Gaul, now faces being stripped of his command and dragged back to Italy for prosecution by his enemies. His former ally, Pompey, has sided with his opponents in the Senate and frustrates all efforts to find peace. With no alternatives, Caesar crosses the Rubicon and spearheads an invasion of Rome with Mark Antony at his side, throwing the empire into civil war. Will Antony rise to the heights of power or be executed as a traitor?

The family of Lord Francis Seaforth lives under the shadow of a dark prophecy. Over a century ago, Coinneach Odhar, known as the Brahan Seer, foresaw the demise of the Seaforth line. There is little doubt among Scottish Highlanders that the end of the dynasty is drawing near. Mary Mackenzie, eldest daughter of Lord and Lady Seaforth, is determined to enjoy the privileged life which seems her birthright. But after her father accepts the British governorship of Barbados, Mary experiences an awakening of conscience.

Leipzig, 1726. Eleven-year-old Stefan Silbermann, a humble organ-maker’s son, has just lost his mother. Sent to Leipzig to train as a singer in the St Thomas Church choir, he struggles to stay afloat. Stefan’s talent draws the attention of the Cantor - Johann Sebastian Bach. Eccentric, obsessive and kind, he rescues Stefan from the miseries of school by bringing him into his home as an apprentice. Soon Stefan feels that this ferociously clever, chaotic family is his own. But when tragedy strikes, Stefan’s period of sanctuary in their household comes to a close.

Rome, AD 37. The emperor is dying. No-one knows how long he has left. The power struggle has begun. When the ailing Tiberius thrusts Caligula's family into the imperial succession in a bid to restore order, he will change the fate of the empire and create one of history's most infamous tyrants, Caligula. But was Caligula really a monster? Forget everything you think you know. Let Livilla, Caligula's youngest sister and confidante, tell you what really happened.

Two years after Emperor Augustus's bloody defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, he triumphantly returns to Rome. To his only child, Julia, he brings an unlikely companion - Selene, the daughter of the conquered Egyptian queen and her lover. Under the watchful eye of Augustus's wife, Livia, Selene struggles to accept her new home among her parents' enemies. Bound together by kinship and spilled blood, these three women - Livia, Selene, and Julia - navigate the dangerous world of Rome's ruling elite.

Writers from William Shakespeare to best-selling modern authors have tried to show what sort of man Richard Neville must have been, with quite different results. Sometimes Warwick is portrayed as the skilled political manipulator behind the throne, shaping events for his own advantage. Others describe him as the last of the barons, ruling his fiefdom like an uncrowned king. Whatever the truth, his story is one of adventure, power, and influence at the heart of one of the most dangerous times in the history of England.

Alexander's epic quest continues. In a seemingly impossible venture, Alexander and his men storm Persian fortresses and harbours, crippling King Darius' domination of land and sea. Even the legendary Halicarnassus is defeated by the Macedinoan armies. Ruthlessly, Alexander's war machine moves ever onward taking him up into the snow-covered Anatolian highlands, and ever closer to his destiny.

Cuando Héctor Abad Faciolince, autor de El olvido que seremos, leyó esta primera novela, decidió publicarla de inmediato; muy poco después Lumen se sumaría a su entusiasmo. Tras el éxito en Colombia y mientras Francia prepara su traducción, Cómo maté a mi padre llega a los lectores de ambos lados del océano como una de las revelaciones literarias de los últimos tiempos.

Rome, AD 67. Vespasian is tasked with the impossible: should he quell the revolt in Judaea, as the emperor Nero has instructed? If his conquest succeeds, he risks becoming the sole object of the emperor's jealousy. If he fails, then his punishment will be severe. But Nero has committed suicide. Sabinus, Vespasian's brother, is caught between the warring factions of Aulus Vitellius, a cruel opportunist, and the noble Marcus Salvius Otho, who finds himself severely outnumbered.

A schoolgirl catches the eye of the future leader of Nazi Germany. An aspiring playwright writes to a convicted serial killer, seeking inspiration. A pair of childhood sweethearts reunite to commit rape and murder. A devoted Mormon wife follows her husband into the wilderness after he declares himself a prophet. The 12 stories in The Love of a Bad Man imagine the lives of real women, all of whom were the lovers, wives or mistresses of various ‘bad’ men in history.

Jane Parker never dreamed that her marriage into the Boleyn family would raise her star to such dizzying heights. Before long, she finds herself as trusted servant and confidante to her sister-in-law, Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII’s second queen. On a gorgeous spring day, that golden era is cut short by the swing of a sword. Jane is unmoored by the tragic death of her husband, George, and her loss sets her on a reckless path that leads to her own imprisonment in the Tower of London.

In 1845, Sir John Franklin led 129 officers and men into the Arctic to try to find the Northwest Passage. None of them returned. Trapped is a novel that tells the harrowing, grueling fascinating story of the disastrous, ill-fated expedition of Sir John Franklin of 1845, which resulted in the deaths of the entire crew of 129 officers and men and the loss of the two expedition ships.

This series features a real historical figure—the formidable Ela Longespée. The young Countess of Salisbury was chosen to marry King Henry II’s illegitimate son William. After her husband’s untimely death, Ela served as high sheriff of Wiltshire, castellan of Salisbury Castle, and ultimately founder and abbess of Lacock Abbey.